Campaign Wikipedias

[the Jester]

How is this different than posting notes on a Yahoo page or even in plain old HTML??? Does it automatically hyperlink things in a document/page?

Please excuse the ignorance.

No problem.

The idea behind a wiki is that anyone can add to or edit the information. So, for instance, one of my players could post his character, another could add in some info on Dorhaus (which I have already given a cursory description of), etc.

While a Yahoo site (f'rinstance) is good for having forums and the like, a wiki allows a much broader level of participation from everyone else (imho).

Here's hoping some of my players, ex-players and even interested third parties get involved in it!

 

[Yair]

While I like the idea that my players will contribute to updating the the campaign site, I find it highly unlikely. A wiki is still advantagous in that it is relatively easy to enter or change entries on a whim, but not much more than a simple HTML editor (or text editor) with a little familiarity. Add to that the fact that I cannot host a wiki on my site, as I don't have a server, and the appeal kind of wanes...
The fact that I am supposed to publish under some non-OGC license, such as the Creative Commons License, when working under a wiki farm just further complicates the matter. It doesn't matter, I suppose, for a fan site - but it still irks me, sitting in the back on my mind. (I prefer to either ignore copyright issues completely or abide by the OGL; abiding by a different copyright license for a d20 site is.... all but impossible.)

 

[IronWolf]

Are there any other offline wikis besides the wikidpad? I tried that today but couldnt quite get the hang of it because I don't like how it does wikiwords. They have to be mashed together with multiple caps, and then assumes that the second cap is the start of a new word.. but for me they arent =/

I dislike the Deities wikiword being made into Dei Ties, or D Eities, or Deite S or whatever. Maybe i'm being lame.

There are some others. I think there was a discussion of it over in the Software and Computers forum awhile back. Not sure if the others were free. Several people like MS One Note.

As for WikidPad you can also use '[ ]' to enclose your words you want to be wiki words instead of 'CamelCase' words. So for deities you would type the word as [Deities] and it wouls be a wiki word. Another options is if you use DeiTies, on the page it creates you can just retype the heading to be Deities.

 

[Ry]

One of my players is one of those web-business startup guru-wizards we all hear about; he hooked me up with some free webspace, so I don't have to bother about licenses or hosting... I'm... so happy.

Maybe this would be a good idea for Legends of the Last Age...

 

[the Jester]

Wow, in just a day I've already crammed a lot of fluff in there...

I realized (d'oh!) that I can just copy & paste (& format :\ ) a lot of stuff from my Cydra Players' Guide to start with and then just add more later...

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Wiki = Great

I'm putting one together for my Age of Worms campaign ... that I'll be running when I actually get a few players. >.<

I actually have a web host (they're very cheap these days, some less than 5 a month) so my wiki is only one of several sites I'm putting together.

I love the Wiki for speed. I want to put data up quickly, without worrying too much about making proper hyperlinks, creating new .html or .php documents and uploading them, etc. Inline images are as simple as typing in a URL that ends in .jpg or .gif, the site creates an IMG tag for you.

Wiki mark-up is mostly simple, to be typed in with the text, and I've found it's generally quite easy ... I want a bold word? Just type '''word''' and you've got it. Want a header? !!Header. Etc etc.

My Age of Worms wiki is there. It's probably a little illegal, as I've yoinked and edited some of the place write-ups for my Diamond Lake sections, but it's for personal use and I'm linking here for illustration purposes.

I'm using a wiki called PMWiki (found at www.pmwiki.org). I've tried a few wikis, but this is honestly my favorite. I like the robust nature of its mark-up, the mark-up is easy, I've even done tables with it, and the lovely thing is ... the initial instal is less than 1mb! It's tight and runs fast and smooth, and I like that alot.

PHPWiki is about 2mb, but I wasn't as fond of its mark-up and features.

Right now the only parts of that site that are up are the Character Traits section and the Diamond Lake section (only part of that). I had about 3x the data, but I was messing around in my directories and nuked the site. >.< So this is what I have of the rebuild.

Eventually I'll add art I've culled from the AoW PDFs, spice it up with some stuff I make myself, and it'll be available for my players.

I'll post their PCs and let them do the upkeep, I'll let them access pretty much anything and add to it if they want. The nice thing about a wiki is you've got a roll-back option on every page, to look back and see the changes, and undo them if you don't like them. If one of the players wanted to log into the Character Creation section and change 28 pt. buy to 32 pt. buy ... I could go change it back.

Mostly I like the wiki for the speed and the small install.

I could use a CMS like Drupal (which I'm basing my other sites on) but to make a web-page page involves in-line PHP and HTML and I find the wiki to be faster.

--fje

 

[the Jester]

I'm lovin' the Wiki. Nested lists, wacky cross-referencing, the opportunity to detail the obscurest stuff if I want...

 

[BluWolf]

Does a wiki toolset automatically hyperlink references???

 

[kigmatzomat]

Yup, every time you use a WikiWord, it automatically links that WikiWord to the corresponding page.

So if you had a FR Wiki and created pages for Elminster, Drizzt, and the Red Wizards of Thay, every time you mention Elminster, Drizzt, and the Red Wizards of Thay a link is created to their page. The Backlinks feature even shows you all the pages that link to a given page (e.g. you can know which pages mention Elminster).

I've got Palmwiki, an application for Palm Pilots that sets up wikiwords in NotePad. This way I can cross-reference and locate data much easier. My plot plans just reference individuals and short concepts while the individuals' document provides more details. Makes it harder to lose data, really.

 

[Thasis]

I realy like the idea. I should get some stuff written up abought my campaign and do that. ^^